AUSTIN — A celebratory scene turned tragic early Sunday morning as gunmen interrupted a college send-off party at an Austin home, wounding four men and killing another, according to witnesses and police.
A young man who asked not to be identified said he and his friends threw the party on the 4800 block of West Kamerling Avenue to celebrate starting college.
He said about 50 people were at the party when two shirtless men ran up to the house and fired through a gangway at a crowd gathered in the backyard. The shooting happened about 1 a.m., police said.
"Everyone was just out there singing along to the music and having a good time, and I just saw some sparks and heard bangs and then it was chaos," said the man's mother, who said her last name is Matthews but declined to give her first name.
"I have no idea who they could've been — these kids [attending the party] go to school, they play sports, they're not involved in gangs, she added. "There weren't even any altercations or arguments or anything like that at the party."
Paramedics pronounced one man, 22, dead on the scene after he was shot in the head, according to Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago Police spokeswoman. Matthews and her son said they did not know the man, but they thought he was a visitor from the South Side.
Two other men were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, Sedevic said. One, 21, is in critical condition with gunshot wounds in his back and chest. The other, 20, is in fair condition with a gunshot wound in his stomach.
Police could not immediately provide the condition of a 19-year-old man who was shot twice in his thigh.
A 24-year-old man was treated and released on scene for a graze wound on his arm, Sedevic said.
"After it happened I was just trying to get everyone inside, and I think someone else called the police," Matthews said. Others, she said, tried to jump over the backyard fence to flee.
Matthews' son, who said he recently graduated from community college, is heading to Midwest Preparatory Academy next week. He said the celebration-turned-tragedy would leave a bitter memory as he leaves Chicago.
"It was just a giant shock. It was really traumatic for everyone here," he said.
See our map of every shooting in Chicago since 2010.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
